Catholic World

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 8, 22 February 1923, Page 47

Catholic World

1 —■ : ATUDOR MUSIC AT WESTMINSTER. Under the baton of Sir Richard Terry, who received the accolade of knighthood at the hands of the King in Buckingham Palace a few days ago (says Catholic, News Service, London, for December 30); Westminster Cathedral was, over the Christmas festival, the scene of as remarkable a presentation of Tudor church music as has been heard in the country for some centuries. It was in recognition of his researches into the works of the Catholic composers of the Tudor period that Sir Richard's knighthood was awarded, and never has a Royal honor been more justified. Beginning with Fayrfax's motet, sung at the Capitular Mass on Christmas Eve, the whole of the music for the Christmas octave was spread over the works of the Tudor composers, and the flowery moderns had no place in the festival. William Byrd, whose tercentenary occurs during 1923, was a prolific composer, and at Westminster at the Midnight, the Aurora and In die Xatiritat? Masses were all taken from the works of this great English composer. Among all this native talent, the immortal Palestrina alone was suffered. For some unaccountable reason these genuine artists of the Tudor age have lain in obscurity, while the more florid of the moderns have held the field in church music generally. Sir Richard Terry has, in fact, brought about a complete revolution in this direction, and has brought back once more the nation's greatest musical gonuses of the golden age of English church music. PROTECTING THE EASTERN CHRISTIANS. The Pope's marked allusion to the deplorable condition of the Christian minorities in Anatolia and Asia Minor in his Allocution at the Consistory has, it is learned in London, given the greatest moral support to Lord Curzoifs efforts at Lausanne to secure some measure of protection to these harassed Christians. The British Foreign Minister's difficulty has not been to prove the need of adequate guarantees, but to convince ' secular politicians that governments have any duties at all in regard to persecuted Christian minorities. But some measure of protection has been achieved, and, on the other hand, there has been some talk about the protection of Moslems in Christian lands—where, to be perfectly honest, it does not appear to be a crying need. The position eastwards of the Christians is still very precarious. The Patriarch of the Gregorian Armenian community in. Constantinople has found it necessary to remove himself from Turkish territory and to seek a refuge in Bulgaria. While the Orthodox Patriarch, who has never been over cordial to the Kemalists, is in the dilemma of either having to remove himself and the Patriarchate from Turkish soil, or else modify the status of the Patriarchate which means, in effect, to place his historic (though schismatic) See under the direction of a civil .servant in the new Kemalist Ministry of Public Worship. If the "Patriarch will allow himself and his office to be nationalised, arid to come under the so-called Church of Turkey, then he will be safe. But Meletious IV. has lived in the Englishspeaking countries, . and he will in all probability remove himself from Constantinople rather than become a mere

State appointee of the Kemalist civil service.

A COPTIC JUBILEE.

With all the gorgeous religious ceremonial peculiar

to the Catholic Church of the Coptic Rite two very interesting silver jubilees have recently been celebrated at Alexandria. These were the jubilees of Mgr. Maxim Sadfaoni, who is Apostolic Administrator of the Coptic Patriarchate, and Mgr. Berzi, the titular Bishop of Thebes—-

both prelates being Copts.by birth. Alexandria Cathedral was the scene of the religious celebration, at which tho Apostolic Delegate to Egypt pre-

sided, and in the Pope’s name imparted the Apostolic Benediction to the jubilarians.

The secular side of the celebration was an official' banquet, at which the Governor of Alexandria presided. Afterwards there was a. huge reception held in the Palace of Nakhla Bey Jassa, when the two prelates received the congratulations of the entire Coptic community. NICARAGUANS' -WORK FOR CONCORDAT. Both Catholic and Conservatives in the Republic of Nicaragua are working hard to bring about improved relations between the State and the Church. And towards this end special efforts are being made, with considerable promise of success, to arrange a Concordat between the Government and the Vatican. The same people who are behind this movement have also in hand a campaign to do away with the civil marriage, that holds sway at present, and to have the ecclesiastical marriage established as the only matrimonial agreement to be recognised by the State. There is a great deal of support in favor of this latter movement; not only in the capital, but in all parts of the Republic, and the promoters are confident that the desired change has every chance of becoming the law of the Republic. POPULAR PARTY AND FASCISM. Hue of the most interesting speculations in Italian political life has been: How will the Popular Party react to the political revolution brought about by Mussolini and his Fascists? Up to the rise of Fascism the Popular Party was the strongest and most coherent of the political parties in Italy, and at one time it seemed as if the political destinies of the kingdom were in its hands. Don Luigi Sturzo, the Sicilian priest who leads the Popular Party, in a speech made at Turin recently, has set all this speculation at rest. Speaking of the Fascist revolution, Don Sturzo said he was not quite clear whether the incident was closed, or whether it was on the way towards developing into a constitutional crisis. lie maintained his continued belief in the principle of proportional representation and for tho continuance of the prevailing electoral laws. But in regard to Premier Mussolini, Don Sturzo, for all the Prime Minister's sanguine hopes, considers it foolish to rely too much on one man, however .strong and capable that one man might be.

Towards the end of his speech Don Sturzo referred to the still existing problem of the relations between Church and State. One thing is clear, however (he said) and that is that everyone seems to have arrived at the conclusion that Catholicism and the Italian nation are in no way opposed to each other.

The loader of the Populists briefly outlined the foreign policy advocated by his party, and made it clear that the Popular Party is strongly committed to a policy of peace and neighborliuoss with other nations. MEMORIAL TO PRINCE CHARLIE. Prince Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie as the Jacobites called him, or the Young Pretender, as the hangers-on of the House of Hanover styled him to their profit, has at last come to his own among his own people and in his own country.

In the Catholic parish church of the Highland village of Glenfinnan in Inverness-shire, and within the Catholic diocese of Argyle and the Isles, a tablet has been placed to his memory, with the inscription: “In loving memory of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince), Glenfinanan, A.D. 1745. R.1.P.” -

No place could be more appropriate, for it was' at Glenfinnan, on August 19, 1745, that Prince Charles raised the Royal Standard of the House of Stuart, where the Highland chieftains flocked to him and embarked on the venture that ended with the disaster of Culloden,

The Rector of Glenfinnan, Canon Angus Macdonald, of the Argyle Chapter, is a collateral descendant of that same Flora Macdonald, whose name is glorious in history. This is the only memorial in Scotland to the young Catholic Prince, in whose brother, Cardinal Stuart, tho male' line of the Stuarts died out. ’ ■